Sanitary pad



y 9. I w. AfHERMANSON 2,468,876

SANITARY PAD Filed April 30, 1945 HEAT SEALING PERMEABLE ABSORBENT v SURFACE. POROUS WET STRENGTH 7 PAPER SHEET.

. I 6 ABSORB NT CELLULOSE IMPERVIOUS FIG 3 WADDINGVCREPED. SIDE STRIP.

- HEAT SEALING FIG. 2 SURFACE. 2

IN V EN TOR.

Patented May 3, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,468,876 SANITARY PAD William A. Hermanson, Boston, Mass.

Application April 30, 1945, Serial No. 590,979

6 Claims.

1 Sanitary napkins are conventionally made of a cellulose wadding pad or communiuted fibre pad enclosed in a gauze wrapper and as such do not well serve to absorb hemorrhagic flow of normal or excessive quantities or to contain the same to prevent leakage at the sides of the pad. The gauze wrapper is also objectionable particularly because the woven surface, even though covered, tends to chafe and irritate the skin since each criss-cross of warp and filling threads creates raised points which press and rub and therefore irritate the skin. Further, the gauze wrapper makes it difficult to dispose of the napkin because the wrapper will not easily disintegrate and often, as a result, blocks toilet bowls when they are therein disposed. A further disadvantage of the combination with a gauze wrapper is that the pad is not bonded to the wrapper and may, therefore, become loose, drop out of the wrapper or get out of place.

The present invention aims to overcome these difficulties by providing a sanitary pad which has adequate absorbent capacity, will not permit leakage from the sides, eliminates chafing and abrasion of the skin, iscompletely disposable and is bonded in one piece. The sanitary pad is usedin combination with a cover in which it is retained. The invention will be more particularly described in the specification below when taken in connection with the drawing in which- Figure 1 shows in plan view the cover used with the sanitary pad.

Figure 2 shows a broken sectional view through the sanitary pad on the line 2-2 of Figure 4.

Figure 3 shows a sectional view through the cover of Figure 1 on the line 33 and Figure 4 shows a plan view of the sanitary pad.

In the present invention I use a paper web having substantially no capillary action and made on a paper machine as a wrapper I. The noncapillary property may be imparted to the web by impregnating it in a cold, high melting point wax, emulsion or in a colloidal dispersion of thermoplastic resin. The wrapper I may cover the face of the pad 2 and be continued around the back of the pad, the ends overlapping, if desired. This wrapper or web is as permeable as gauze and, further, has on its exposed face a cosmetic surface similar in sensation to the human skin. The web or wrapper also has wet strength to a high degree and all of its fibres are disposed parallel to its surface so that there are no abrasive tendencies. In thickness the wrapper is almost gossamer, calipering .0025" or less and of a duplex formation, that is, the wrapper comprises two Webs pressed together, the web facing the pad having synthetic heat sealable fibres such as cellulose acetate fibres disposed primarily on the side of the web facing the pad or integrally formed as a part of the web itself so that the pad and web face of the wrapper as well as the webs themselves may be joined and sealed together. The web or wrapper is also impregnated with a softener and humectant after having been treated for wet strength. The fibres of the web are defiocculated by a well known process in the manufacture of the web to create inter-fibre interstices of the order of 5 to microns through which fluid permeation into the cellulose wadding contained within the wrapper may take place.

Disposed longitudinally about the sides of the pad extending from the peripheral margin of the face of the pad are impervious strips 3 and 4 which are enclosed by the wrapper I and are pressed against the sides and edges of the pad by means of the wrapper. These strips, if desired, may be sufficiently large to extend over the back of'the pad in overlapping. position or a single section of such a strip may be used extendin from one edge of the pad around the back to the other edge and form a complete seal for the sides and back of the pad. The strips 3 and 4, which are impervious as above set forth, are preferably water repellent, crepe cellulose wadding, plastic coatings, plastic tapes or a combination thereof.

These impervious strips or covers extend longi tudinally along the sides of the pad substantially for its whole length and are sealed or bonded by the synthetic heat sealing surface 5 on the inner face of the wrapper l' to the wrapper itself where one layer overlaps the next or to the cellulose pad 2. The assembly, pad and wrapper is used with a case or holder of impervious sheet material comprising a backing sheet 6 with soft plastic tapes 1 and 8 positioned one at either end of the cover. These tapes may be attached to the cover in any suitable manner. The finished pad may be inserted in the case with a permeable wrapper surface exposed and not cfacing the case. Attachment to proper supports may be made in any suitable manner as by means of under straps 9 and Ill. The cellulose pad 2 should be made of sheets of creped cellulose webs pressed loosely together to form a pad. When the pad is applied with the exposed face of the wrapper against the skin, the permeable wrapper will permit liquid to pass through it without the wrapper bein itself affected.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

1. A sanitary napkin pad comprising a plu- 'rality of layers of highly absorbent cellulose creped sheets forming a wadding, an enclosing paper web wrapper permeable to moisture having wet strength and substantially no capillary action, said wrapper being of a duplex web, the exposed faces of which are composed of fibres having no heat scaling properties, the inner faces of which are formed with fibres having heat sealing properties whereby said wrapper is bonded to said wadding on its anterior and posterior faces.

2. A sanitary napkin pad comprising a plurality of layers of highly absorbent cellulose creped sheets forming a wadding, an enclosing paper web wrapper permeable to moisture having wet strength and substantially no capillary action, said wrapper being of a duplex web, the exposed faces of which are composed of fibres having no heat sealing properties, the inner faces of which are formed withlfibres having heat sealing properties whereby said wrapper is bonded to said wadding on its anterior and posterior faces, and impermeable cellulose sheets positioned along the edges of said wadding and extending longitudinally thereof between the enclosing web and said wadding.

3. A sanitary napkin pad comprising a plurality of layers of highly absorbent paper, a paper web wrapper enclosing the same, said wrapper being permeable to moisture having wet strength and substantially no capillary action, said wrapper being of a duplex formation of defiocculated fibre webs'having inter-fibre interstices ranging from '5 to 150 microns in diameter, the outer faces of said wrapper Web being composed of fibres having no heat scaling properties, the

inner faces being formed of fibres having heat scaling properties and being bonded by heat sealing to the layers .of absorbent paper and side strips facing the edge of said layers of paper between said layers and said wrappensaid strips being impermeable to moisture.

4. A sanitary napkin pad'comprising a wadding formed of layers of highly absorbent, creped cellulose webs, a paper web wrapper having a soft outer surface formed .of duplex webs with the fibres in the exposed web lying all in the plane of the surface of the web, said web having heat sealing fibres disposed on the inner face thereof whereby said wadding and said wrapper are sealed together and an impermeable paper sheet extending about the sides of said wadding and positioned between the wrapper and said wadding.

5. A sanitary napkin pad comprising a wadding formed of layers of highly absorbent, creped cellulose webs, a paper web wrapper having a soft outer surface formed of duplex webs with the fibres in the exposed web lying all in the plane of the surface of the web, said web having heat sealing fibres disposed on'the inner face thereof whereby said wadding and said wrapper are sealed together and an impermeable sheet extending about the sides of said wadding and positioned between the wrapper and said wadding, said impermeable sheet being composed of repellent, creped cellulose webs.

' 6. In combination a moisture impermeable enclosing jacket having supporting straps across the front at either end thereof, a sanitary napkin positioned within said enclosingjacket comprising a plurality of layers of highly absorbent, creped paper forming a wadding, a paper web wrapper having a soft outer surface permeable to moisture but having wet strength and substantially no capillary action, said Wrapper enclosing the pad and having on its inner face heat sealing fibres sealing the wrapper and pad together, and an impermeable sheet of water repellent paper extending around "the side edges of said wadding and positioned between the wrapper and said wadding.

WILLIAM A. HERMANSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,284,143 Reid ,Nov. 5, 1918 1,872,076 Dreyfus Aug. 16, 1936 2,076,526 Brown lApr. 13, 1937 2,284,944 Bruning June 2, 19.42

FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date (553,657 Great Britain May 31, 1943 290,224 Great Britain Aug. 23, 1928 282,447 Great Britain May 24, 1928 

